Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Flip

Original poster

when is best to start using more than just milk?

22 replies

Emilysmummy10 · 07/07/2010 17:53

my daughter is only 8 weeks old almost 9 weeks but has started waking alot more often through the night than she used to, she used to sleep through around 8 hours but has started waking around every 2.5-3 hours about 4 weeks ago. my mum and a family friend who is a nurse had advised to start using a small amount of farleys in with her last feed at night but im a bit warey to start doin this too early. i would never give her any kind of proper food but i was just advised that this would help her sleep better at night?...

OP posts:

Morloth · 07/07/2010 17:55

Waaaaaay too early, if she is hungry offer her more milk. Milk has more calories than cereal.

They all go through periods when they wake up more at night.

Original poster

Emilysmummy10 · 07/07/2010 17:55

i forgot to mention that i am breastfeeding so i also dont know how much milk she is actually taking at the moment but usually has a few feeds before going to bed - one before her bath, one after and about an hour after this to settle her to sleep... maybe a change in routine would help. any ideas would be great?

OP posts:

thedollshouse · 07/07/2010 17:56

Much too early. What is Farleys? Is it a rusk? If so they are full of sugar anyway, not a good food to give her.

How much milk do you give her? Is she breast or bottle fed?

thedollshouse · 07/07/2010 17:59

Sorry crossed posts.

I'm not too sure about breastfeeding. There are loads of people on here who will be able to advise you.

Please ignore your mums nutty friend. Feeding her anything other than milk at such a young age could damage her digestive system.

Morloth · 07/07/2010 18:06

Most babies cluster feed of an evening, it does get better but she needs to do this to keep the milk flowing, if you put anything other than milk in her tummy your breasts will assume that they don't need to produce as much and your supply will slow down.

StealthPolarBear · 07/07/2010 18:10

she is too little to be in any sleep pattern for long.
She will wake often and feed loads, it is normal. She is far far too little to have anything other than bm or formula - please ask your HV if you are even considering taking this advice.

tiktok · 07/07/2010 20:20

Emilysmummy - oh dear I hope this family friend is not in touch with any more new mums

This is seriously bad advice - and I don't care how many kids had this assault on their digestive system back in the day. It is bad.

Farleys is cereal and sugar. It should never be in a bottle and it should never be given to small babies.

Your routine with your baby is just fine, and her sleeping and waking is normal....are there ways to make it easier for you to cope with, maybe? Just accepting it as something babies do when they are young might help - sometimes, overly-high expectations are hard work

jemjabella · 07/07/2010 20:31

Tiny babies have tiny tummies than need filling with little amounts of milk as often as possible. This normally means lots of feeds at short distances apart including through the night. It will get better WITHOUT the addition of sugar-laden rusks, you just have to bear with it for a while.

I personally find co-sleeping helps me get more rest but it's not for everyone. Have you looked into safe co-sleeping?

Original poster

Emilysmummy10 · 07/07/2010 21:18

Thanks everyone yeah i thought this was the case but so many people had been telling me otherwise i wanted to hear it from people i didnt know lol.
Jemjabella, no i havnt looked into co-sleeping? what is it. ill try anything for a little more sleep!!

OP posts:

MumNWLondon · 07/07/2010 22:05

Definately no to farleys but try cluster feeding and dream feeds.

If you really wanted to supplement with something maybe hungry baby formula which is suitable from birth.

I seem to feed DS (11 weeks) at 7am, 10.30am 2pm, 4pm 6pm and around 10.30pm (I pick him up and he generally feeds in his sleep) and then he sleeps until 7am.

He started sleeping all night at 8 weeks which I thought was very early for an EBF baby, although do have occasional night waking and he had growth spurt at 9 weeks which led to 2 nights of him waking every 2 hours.

Co-sleeping doesn't work for me as I can't BF in my sleep (can't sleep in that position) and I find it hard to share a room with a baby as they are noisy.

jemjabella · 08/07/2010 11:12

Hungry baby formula is NOT necessary here. Why introduce a foreign substance and risk upsetting the baby's tummy?

Co-sleeping is sleeping with baby, either by having the baby in bed with you or by using a co-sleeping cot (taking 1 side off a normal cot and raising it to the same level as the bed works just as well.)

This PDF leaflet explains how to do it safely:
www.babyfriendly.org.uk/pdfs/sharingbedleaflet.pdf

MoonFaceMama · 08/07/2010 12:13

that she has slept through at all!

DrOli4 · 08/07/2010 13:59

Hi there,
I am a mummy and a nutritionist and I am so glad to hear so many folks giving you the RIGHT advice on here.

100% correct in the fact that baby's digestive system is WAY too immature for anything other than milk. The department of health recommend only milk for the first 6 months of life - and although this can be realistically hard to achieve, they state very clearly - never before 17 weeks of age (this is around 4 months).

I also would not suggest the hungry baby formulas in your situation because you are breastfeeding The formulas will interfer with your breastfeeding and you may find that baby prefers the bottle than your breast and will start to get fussy (not a good idea) however, if a mother is not breastfeeding and using a formula the hungry baby milks are suitable from birth.

From my own experience with my little girl (now 11 months old and breastfed until about 6 months) was that I would feed her early evening - then do bath and relax time and give her a gap of perhaps 2 and half hrs and then give her a feed before bed. Not only was she exhausted and usually feel asleep feeding, she often drank a lot because she was given time to get hungry.

As mentioned in the texts above, it is important to remember that babies have tiny tummys and it is actually normal for them to wake up every few hours for feeds esp for the first 4 months!!
Although tiring for us

If you need any other help or advice, please just ask - happy to help if I can

Leanne x

Original poster

Emilysmummy10 · 08/07/2010 14:37

thanks leanne yeah i cant use the hungry baby milk any way as my little one is allergic to milk proteins. tried taking her in to bed with me last night as she wasnt really settling very well and she did seem to sleep a little better sso may be the way to go!!

OP posts:

Ineedsomesleep · 08/07/2010 14:43

I bf and ended up co-sleeping. It was the only way for us to get any sleep too. I agree with the comments about her being far too young for anything other than milk and also she is far too young to stay in any sleeping pattern for long.

Lots of bfing Mums swear by this but I must confess that I've never read it. Your local library might have a copy if you want to have a read.

jemjabella · 08/07/2010 17:28

The book Ineedsomesleep links to is a good read but can basically be summed up as "it's good to co-sleep; loads of people do it!"

Ineedsomesleep · 09/07/2010 07:05

Glad I didn't bother to read it then, because co-sleeping is good and we did do it with both

Have you been given a copy of this leaflet by your MW?

TheJollyPirate · 09/07/2010 07:15

Excellent advice here Emilysmummy. I am a HV and would never advise adding anything to feeds but am constantly amazed how often Mums tell me that older relatives and friends have suggested rice, rusks and goodness knows what else added to bottles.

It's possible that the heat is making your DD wake more often for feeds at the moment so I would just go with it and hopefully once the weather cools down (and any growth spurts are out of the way) she might sleep through for you again.

The www.kellymom.com/Kellymom site is very good with regard to cluster feeds etc.

Oh and can I just add a too - my DS didn't go through the night ever until nearly 10 months

Original poster

Emilysmummy10 · 09/07/2010 11:53

yeah i think she is definately having a growth spurt at the moment!! she seems to be feeding permanently lol. since she had her jags she seems to be very clingy as well, just wants cuddled all the time. poor baba. Thanks for all the advice everyone

OP posts:

Ineedsomesleep · 09/07/2010 13:37

Have you got a sling Emilysmum? I used one with DD and it was fab. She was comforted by being next to me and I could get on with looking after DS and doing the housework/school run/shopping etc.

Original poster

Emilysmummy10 · 09/07/2010 16:59

no i dont but i have been thinking about getting one because i really cant put her down. its sweet really lol but just not very practical. even while sleeping through the day she wont fall asleep unless im holding her and wakes up if i put her down!!

OP posts:

Ineedsomesleep · 10/07/2010 08:01

Oh God, sounds just like my DS when he was a baby. We only had a baby carrier back then and it was really hard to put on.

Learnt my lesson and with DD we had the close which I could put on easily and was a godsend.

There are plenty of reviews here on all different ones.

And if you want to try before you buy you might like to go to a Sling Meet. Again, I've never been to one but I hear they are good

Flip